Sunday Round Up...

This post should serve as an example of what to expect from me for the next week or so as I finish last minute Christmas shopping and spiffying-up my house, which increasingly looks to be the spot for the Hayduke Family Holiday Gathering.

Better late than never: The Sun, after discussing some activities of new County Executive Ken Ulman, tackles the possible partisan issues surrounding his appointment of two Democrats to post formerly held by Republicans, something already covered by the local blogs. As I said before, it's about performance more than politics. But to some, it's always All About Politics.

Ever expanding plan: At General Growth's most recent Voices of Vision forum, the speaker, Robert W. Burchell, urged consideration of Columbia's village centers in our Town Center master planning effort. While I agree in principle with the idea, we certainly need to put spatial constraints on the plan to keep our efforts focused. Also, I would note, villages on their own have begun planning for the future of their centers -- particularly the oldest, Wilde Lake and Oakland Mills -- often in the context of how a new Town Center will alter the local village landscape.

I'm a firm beleiver in keeping local planning local. That is, conducting it at the most appropriate level, which, for a village center, is the surrounding village. Meanwhile, Town Center, whether for good or bad, is the center of our county -- or, at least, the eastern half -- and planning for it should therefore involve a county-wide constituency.